As previously announced, Mazra opened its doors to the public on Tuesday, April 2. Mazra, in case you aren’t aware, is a Mediterranean restaurant that has been operating to great acclaim in San Bruno for a number of years. Their popularity was such that they decided to open a second location, and Redwood City — more specifically, the old Courthouse 2021 space on Broadway just across from Vesta — fit the bill perfectly, with its outdoor spaces, both in front and in back, and its large indoor dining area.

Although I missed their first day, my wife and I picked up dinner there on Wednesday, their second day of operation. I’m pleased to say that even at 5:30 p.m., which we thought might be quieter, given the relatively early hour, the place was pretty much packed: all of the inside tables seemed to be occupied, and most of the outdoor tables, both in front (on the street, along the closed section of Broadway) and in the back courtyard (a fenced off area adjacent to the Main Street Parking Lot) were well occupied. Plus, there was a long line of people waiting to order. Although that line moved at a reasonable pace, my wife stepped outside to order online, while I stayed in line in case she had problems. She managed to complete our order just before I got to the register, so I promptly stepped out of line and we found an out-of-the-way spot outside to wait for the 20 or so minutes while our food was prepared.

Mazra does a pretty good job of separating the folks lining up to order from the folks picking up pre-made orders. When you enter, you first encounter a hallway down the center of which there is a rope divider: stand to the right if you want to order in person, or head up the left side if you are picking up an order you placed ahead of time:

Once you get fully inside you either proceed straight ahead to the registers or you make an immediate right turn just beyond the door you see in the above photo to head for that rolling rack you can see towards the right side (that is where to-go orders can be found). Whichever way you go, you’ll find yourself skirting an open part of the kitchen where final prep is done and where drinks are apparently prepared:

As you can probably tell, the interior decor is quite nice; it should be a very pleasant place to dine. And although I didn’t get any photos of the outdoor tables, they, too, are quite nice. In particular, one of the tables on Broadway is long and narrow, made from a hunk of raw wood with live edges; it is quite beautiful.

We ended up taking our food home: it was getting quite chilly by Wednesday evening, and although there were heaters, on that evening we knew we’d be more comfortable in our own place. I don’t claim to be a restaurant reviewer, but I know what I like, and both my wife and I really enjoyed what we ordered. For the record, we both ordered signature plates: I got the Grilled Salmon Plate, while my wife got the Garlic Rotisserie Plate. For sides (you get to choose two with their plates), we both ordered tabbouleh and basmati rice (next time — and there definitely will be a next time — we’ll branch out and try something different). I liked everything about my meal. My wife loved hers, with the one caveat that the Garlic Rotisserie Plate consists of a half chicken: it was more than she could eat at one sitting. But it’s hard to complain about that, especially when one can save the rest for leftovers. Finally, the plates come with rice (the sides of rice we ordered ended up being in addition to what came standard with the plate — oops!) and pita, plus a container of garlic/hot sauce.

Their to-go packaging was quite good: the “plates” are cardboard (and thus compostable) with recyclable plastic tops. The pita came in a small paper bag, and the sides and sauces came in small recyclable containers. As someone who is big on recycling, I was pretty happy to see that everything could either be composted or recycled: none of it ended up in our garbage bin.

Mazra in Redwood City is likely to be popular for some time to come (at least), especially given that now that they’ve opened this new location, they’ve closed their original one through the end of the year so they can remodel and thereby make much-needed increases in capacity. But don’t let the crowds scare you off: Mazra is worth a small effort, and the small crowds made for a fun, festive atmosphere. When things warm up a bit I plan to go back and enjoy some of their outdoor seating, but if I get there and things look particularly busy, well, I’m glad to know that I can alway order mine to-go.

On the subject of of restaurants coping with large crowds, Redwood City’s Chick-fil-A, on Whipple Avenue just west of Veterans Boulevard, is going to try once again to alter their configuration and thereby improve the on-street traffic issues that have plagued our particular outlet pretty much ever since it opened.

This particular Chick-fil-A first opened in July of 2020, and right from the start traffic was backed up on both Whipple Avenue and Veterans Boulevard.  Early on Redwood City police officers had to be on hand to help sort out the traffic snarls, and city traffic engineers quickly worked to devise some workarounds. Those helped, a bit, but in January of 2021 I noted that there were still problems. Accordingly, early that year Chick-fil-A redesigned their parking lot and drive-thru lanes in an attempt to get more drive-thru customers off the streets and onto the property. That helped somewhat, to the point where now the backups on Whipple and Veterans are much less frequent. They still occur at particular times of day, however, and so just a couple of months ago (on January 23) Chick-fil-A went before the city Zoning Administrator with more drastic plans for revamping their layout. Their newest plan, which was swiftly approved, calls for reducing the number of on-site parking spaces by about half (from 29 to 15) and re-drawing the drive-thru lanes such that they hug the perimeter of the property and thus are as long as possible. This new configuration should increase the number of drive-thru vehicles that can be accommodated on-property significantly, from (if my calculations are correct) today’s 28 to about 38.

The proposed changes involve much more than just re-striping of some asphalt. As you can see in the above photograph, today there is parking to the right of the drive-thru entrance lanes. A couple of those parking spaces will be relocated to the center of the property, while the rest will be eliminated. Then, the entry apron will be shifted east, away from Veterans Boulevard. Patrons entering the property and heading for the drive-thru will immediately make a sharp right and will proceed to where those parking spaces (and the trash enclosure, which you can kind-of make out behind that car on the right) currently are. Across the back of the property, the second drive-thru lane will be lengthened. Other tweaks will enable employees to more easily exit the building and make their way to vehicles waiting in the drive-thru, thus serving people a bit more quickly. Finally, a new exit will be added to the west end of the property, allowing people who’ve received their food before they make the final turn around the building to exit the drive-thru early.

For the really curious, here is the plan for the new layout, with the new drive-thru lanes and parking spaces highlighted in blue:

(Much more information can be found in the meeting minutes, found here in PDF format.) In addition to on-site changes, I should note that the timing of signals at Veterans Boulevard and Whipple Avenue and at Whipple Avenue and Industrial Way will be tweaked somewhat, in an attempt to further alleviate the problem.

Although most of what is being done is to pavement and parking areas, in reality this is an ambitious plan that will also involve some modifications to the restaurant building itself. I for one will be very interested to see how much of this, if any, can be done while keeping the restaurant open. I certainly won’t be surprised if they simply shut down Redwood City’s Chick-fil-A restaurant for a couple of months, to make the changes as quickly as possible. But we’ll see. And of course I, like many of you, will be very interested to see just how successful these changes are, and whether they solve Chick-fil-A’s traffic issues in Redwood City once and for all. Me, I’m hopeful, but I’m not holding my breath…

Speaking of fast-food restaurants that are adjusting to a shift away from in-person patronage and towards an increase in drive-thru traffic, for those curious about the progress of the McDonald’s at 709 Woodside Rd. (which burned down on August 7, 2022, and was torn down in May of 2023), there doesn’t appear to be any: McDonald’s has applied for permits to build an all-new restaurant with, it appears, two drive-thru lanes, but those permits are still marked as “under review.” So while I still expect to see a new restaurant rise on that spot, I don’t expect much action until later this year, at least.

Moving away from restaurants, the old used-car building at 620 El Camino Real (which originally was … a restaurant!) is well on its way to becoming Redwood City’s newest — and fifth — cannabis dispensary (“Flor Peninsula”). Remodeling is well underway now, with the old red roof in the process of being replaced, and with interior walls being reworked and exterior windows and doors being updated:

Given all of the activity in and out of this little stone-clad building these days, I’m guessing that the city’s newest dispensary will be open sometime this summer (but that’s just a guess).

One project that is undoubtedly to be completed almost any day now is the county’s new office building (“County Office Building 3”; presumably it’ll get a better name at some point) at 500 County Center, on Marshall Street across from the county’s historic courthouse. The landscaping and hardscaping are pretty much done, with just some of the outdoor “furniture” still to be wrapped up:

The above photo shows the side of the building away from Marshall Street: over on Marshall, there are just some large, well, “things” that just seem to need tops of some sort:

As for the building itself, while the glass makes them hard to photograph, standing there I can see that the interior offices are furnished and are getting large computer displays and such, making them pretty much ready for occupancy. So I imagine that county employees — hundreds of them — will be moving in to their new home here quite soon. Which means that we members of the public will soon be able to see at least some of the buildings interior for ourselves (the lobby and the chambers where the Board of Supervisors will be meeting, at least, will be open to the public). Although no longer evident from the exterior, this building was constructed using mass timber technology: the vast majority of the buildings structural members are made of wood, not steel. And much of that wood should be visible inside the building, making for a warm, attractive working environment.

I took a long walk this week and spent time down at (the former) Docktown Marina and over at the massive ELCO Yards project (where all four office buildings are now well above ground level), but those can wait. Stay warm this weekend — it’ll continue to be on the chilly side — but look forward to a sunny work week with highs all week in the 70’s! At last…